Radical open innovation requires systems thinking and problem solving methods. It involves collaboration across diverse partners to solve complex problems accelerated by technological, economic, and environmental changes. Systems thinking views problems holistically rather than through generalizations and can help address unintended consequences and design effective policies for managing systems. Key tools for systems thinking include causal loop diagrams, stock and flow models, and identifying archetypes to predict system behaviors and assess how proposed changes may impact the system over time. Simulation is also essential to validate if changes will lead to sustainable outcomes.

1. Problem Solving Methods
NOCX Analyst report
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(c) 2020 Business Management Support Foundation (bm-support.org) - This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Created by : Maikel Mardjan (www.nocomplexity.com )
Last update : July 2020
Proven tools for
Radical Open Innovation

2. Radical Open innovation
A modern innovation processes requires:
● An enormous diversity of knowledge and skills
● Use of knowledge partners
● Openness
Radical Open innovation is all about collaboration
We define Radical Open Innovation(ROI) as a method in with exchange of ideas and
knowledge is possible in an open structure using openness principles by default.
ROI requires the use of problem solving methods with a foundation in systems thinking.
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3. Accelerating changes
Changes in:
● Technology: Machine
Learning (AI), biohacking
(crissp) , Internet use, etc
● Post covid-19 economy
● Environmental shifts
(water becomes the new
gold)
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4. Solving problems is never easy
Well intentioned efforts to solve pressing problems lead to:
RESISTANCE
Many times your best efforts to solve a problem actually:
MAKE IT WORSE
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5. Systems thinking will help
Move from generalizations to tools and processes:
● that help to solve complexity
● design better operating policies, and
● Guide change in systems (organisations and technology systems)
System Dynamics is a method to
enhance learning in complex systems
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6. Systems thinking is critical for ROI
● Changes in our environment are driving us to think differently about governance.
● Information explosion: More accessible knowledge (fads, facts and opinions)
● Digital connected world (Machine Learning / AI, IoT, Internet) -> Everything is
connected.
● Communication is more complex: E.g. complex collaboration networks
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7. What is a system
● A combination of interacting elements organized to achieve one or more stated
purposes.
● An integrated set of elements, subsystems, or assemblies that accomplish a defined
objective. These elements include products (hardware, software, firmware),
processes, people, information, techniques, facilities, services, and other support
elements.
● a set of things, connected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of
behavior over time. (Donella Meadows)
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8. Systems thinking
● Systems thinking is a unique perspective on reality a perspective that sharpens our
awareness of wholes and how the parts within those wholes interrelate.
● A systems thinker knows how systems fit into the larger context of day‐to‐day life,
how they behave, and how to manage them.
● Systems thinking recognizes circular causation, where a variable is both the cause
and the effect of another and recognizes the primacy of interrelationships and
nonlinear thinking. A way of thinking where the primacy of the whole is
acknowledged.
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9. Emergence
● System-level properties exist only at the
system level as the system functions.
● System properties are not observable by
looking at a subsystem only.
● Emergence behaviour cannot be
understood, explained, or inferred from the
structure or behavior of constituent
elements or their local properties.
● Cause and effect relationships can only be
established through retrospection.
● Traditional reductionist analytic techniques
are incapable of useful predictions of
emergent, system-level behavior.
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10. Systems Science overview
Source: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2018.16 (cc-by)
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11. Systems Science overview (2)
11Source: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2018.16 (cc-by)

12. Skills
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Source: Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 2013

13. System Dynamics
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Known and Unknown behaviour makes IT innovation comparable with rocket launching:
● Programming (mistakes)
● Knowledge
● Floating specs
● Budget
● Scope creep
● Software errors
● Hardware errors (CPU, Storage, etc)
● Communication errors (network and humans)
● Human behaviour
● Factor time

14. System Dynamics
System dynamics is fundamentally interdisciplinary:
● Behaviour of complex systems
○ Theory of nonlinear dynamics and feedback control
● Behaviour of humans
○ Cognitive and social psychology, economics and other social sciences.
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15. System Dynamics
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16. Factors that make innovation complex
Only a few factors make problems complex and hard to solve:
● Humans (mostly behaviour)
● Time (and delays in time)
Time delays between taking a decision and its
effects on the state of the system are common
and particularly troublesome.
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17. Feedback
● Much of the art of system dynamics modeling is discovering and representing the
feedback processes.
● The most complex behaviors usually arise from the interactions (feedbacks) among
the components of the system, not from the complexity of the components
themselves.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK SELF-REINFORCING
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK SELF-CORRECTING
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18. Time: Exponential behaviour
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19. Time: Scale
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20. Core tool: mental models
Share perceptions
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21. Core tool: Causal Loop Diagrams
Use the most simple (and FREE! ) tool available: https://nocomplexity.com/causalloopdiagram/
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22. Core tool: Stock and flow models
Use the FOSS tool Insight Maker to create fast simulations to validate if changes are
sustainable. Its free to use! Check: https://insightmaker.com/
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23. Core tool: Archetypes to predict behaviour
● Feedback loops are
linked to specific
kinds of behaviour
patterns.
● Finding archetypes
(feedback loops) in
nonlinear systems
(so real world
systems!) is very
hard!
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24. Requirements for successful ROI
● Use systems thinking and the key tools.
● Simulation is essential.
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Your
innovation
problem
Create diagrams, rich
pictures and causal loop
diagrams
Create an architecture view with the
current (baseline) and the target
situation to define the gap
Select a PSM to approach the
problem (and iterate!)
Define the implementation
steps needed for change
Implement and
learn (with all
stakeholders!)
Real world System thinking about the real world (virtual worlds)

25. Join!
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more opportunities for your open collaboration project.
● Joining this open network is free. No strings attached!
● It is a decentralized network by design. You decide if, how, when and with whom you
want to collaborate.
https://www.bm-support.org/join/
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26. Contact Information
Business Management Support Foundation
Chamber of Commerce number 08164333 (The Netherlands)
Info [ at ] bm-support.org
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the bm-support.org network!
Support our foundation by your donation or participation!
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